IT Cost Savings Through Bloatware Elimination

Compare the following two software scenarios:

Software package #1: 6meg download requires a Pentium 200mhz system with 64megs of RAM and 500megs of hard disk space. It runs well on any Windows OS, with any service pack, and doesn’t require any additional licensing or external packages to accomplish its goal. It will work well on a shared server or virtual server.

Software package #2: 400meg download requires a dual-core 2ghz system with 2gigs of RAM, and 2gigs of hard disk space. It must run under Windows Server 2003 or 2008, and also requires a database license (database potentially installed on a secondary server due to loading). Virtualization is possible but not recommended due to the fact that its design has it constantly hungry for more resources. Appling service pack updates and/or .NET library updates may require this package to have a patch applied. Database maintenance and patching should be performed to insure security and continued operation.

Which scenario costs more in terms of:

Server footprint?

Deployment cost?

Ongoing engineering support cost?

Air conditioning & power costs?

Let’s add some more details:

Software package #1 scales to monitor a network of 30,000 nodes with a single deployment, and collects 27 different data elements for each monitored interface.

Software package #2 is designed to monitor 8,000 nodes with a single deployment, and collects 13 different data elements for each monitored interface.